9 List-Building Experts: Best Strategies to Use to Get More Subscribers

If there is one thing that online business owners and expert bloggers will recommend that you do (aside from creating evergreen pillar posts), it’s building an email list early on.

An email list can be considered as a valuable asset for most sites and they can be used for many reasons:

filter out the people who are genuinely interested in your craft

provide an audience for new posts, products or services

give a more guaranteed reach for your blog, compared to social media

get instant feedback for posts, products or services

Because people who sign up for email list are more likely to be interested in what you do and trust you at providing value, they also tend to have a higher likelihood of purchasing a product or service through the email.

But, the truth is that building an email list is difficult.

After all, would you entrust anyone with something as valuable as your personal email?

We all have so many things to tend to every single day, so why would a person allow you to take away a few minutes of their time just to read your email?

The reason? Because you have high-value content that is just too hard to resist.

[bctt tweet=”People let you into their inboxes because of your expertise and HIGH-VALUE.” username=”createstretch”]

With so many similar sites fighting over one email, how did the big sites succeed?

Here are among the top strategies that they did to increase their subscribers…

Mariah is awesome at creating hard-to-resist offers to go along with her blog posts. Also called content upgrades, these downloadables can be an ebook, printable, worksheet, checklist and so on — that usually summarizes your points.

Admittedly, I’m a lazy ass and would sometimes prefer reading ebooks on my Kindle while lying on the bed, instead of hurting my back when I’m on the laptop. And, guess what? So many people are like me!

Mariah also specifically creates landing pages that only focuses on one thing: invite your reader to sign-up and download. Taking away all distractions is usually enough to get your readers to give your their email addresses.

If you can’t afford a landing page just yet, simply sprucing up your download button to make it stand out from the rest of the content can already make a lot of difference.

You don’t necessarily have to pitch ideas right away. Simply engaging with them via social media or commenting on their blogs should be a good start at getting their attention.

Once you get their trust, it may be time to send in an email and ask them about your idea. Providing them with early access and asking for feedback will also help fine-tune your content/product/service before you get it out to the public.

And, guess what? After five weeks, Groove HQ got over 5,000 subscribers and 535 trial sign-ups through their blogging efforts.

Who wouldn’t want to win anything in exchange for nothing but their emails, anyway? I know I would.

If you plan on doing giveaways to help boost your email list, go for prizes that are smaller and more related to your niche. You would certainly want to be attracting people who will be interested in what you offer, right?

And, of course, don’t be too disheartened about unsubscribes. These are all part of the game, especially since the signed up through a giveaway.

Just think about it this way: unsubscribes are nature’s way of weeding out your list. Then you’ll be left with those who are genuinely interested in you.

[bctt tweet=”Unsubscribes are nature’s way of weeding out your list.” username=”createstretch”]

I devour their content and read it multiple times and sign up for every email course they have.

And reading their post just made me realize how much effort they put into trying to grow their list.

Coschedule is the KING of content upgrades with all of their posts having, at least, one of those. Aside from their free tools such as the headline analyzer and Click to Tweet plugin, they also provide awesome resources for editorial content planning, headline writing, content creation and more!

[bctt tweet=”When building your email list, stick to the ones that show promise and refine your strategies.” username=”createstretch”]

Although following expert tactics and strategies can be of really great help, you need to remember that the whole technique still entails you tweaking and refining the process to make sure that it fits your site, your audience, and your goals.

There is never a one-size-fits-all solution.

For example, you might rather want to avoid pop-ups and giveaways to grow your email list — and that’s perfectly fine.

The bottom line is: plan, measure, analyze and strategize based on the behavior that your site’s audience is telling you.

The email list may be for you but what you give them through email is ultimately for them.

Happy list building!

About the Author

Hi, y’all! I’m Pam and I’m an outdoors-loving and adventurous millennial momma who moonlights as a freelance writer, blogger, and ghostwriter. I help businesses create compelling content that connects with their readers and specialize in writing in the travel, parenting, personal finance, digital marketing, freelancing and entrepreneurship niches. You can connect with me via social media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.